Quote:
Originally Posted by mlefev
I just wanted to know if that's typical, and also am a bit curious why the back would wear out before the front. I'm sure they need replaced soon but I thought the front usually took the brunt of the force in braking. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
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Front brakes normally do take the brunt of the braking effort - when you are trying to stop the car. It is possible that with ABS that the brakes are biased a little more toward the rear than they should be without ABS, but in a properly engineered braking system this shouldn't result in vastly different front vs rear pad wear rates.
But . . . most traction control systems use the rear brakes as one of the strategies for reducing/eliminating wheelspin. So if you tend to launch hard, or power through or out of corners hard enough with the TC left on, the TC will be working the rear brakes while the fronts are just taking it easy. If you aren't actively looking for indication that the TC is working to suppress wheelspin, chances are you won't notice and won't know that your rear pads only are getting beat up on.
Let me suggest doing a brake pad bedding process similar to what Hawk recommends for their performance street pads.
Get in the habit of shutting the TC off, and using your head and your right foot to keep wheelspin under control. Check back in 12,000 miles or so with your pad wear rates.
I suppose that TC is a useful enough system for the moron drivers that we're stuck sharing the road with, but it isn't really necessary once you've developed a little skill concerning throttle modulation. Cars never used to have it - We never had TC on any car in the first 45 years of my driving and the first 38 of hers. Most other people coped just fine, too.
Norm